


break with tradition (fall and divide)

by orphan_account



Series: Finish What You Started 2K17 [2]
Category: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Genre: M/M, Vignette, canon-typical horribleness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-24
Updated: 2017-05-24
Packaged: 2018-11-04 10:36:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10989189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: An epilogue to the fic "tell me that you're alright."





	break with tradition (fall and divide)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [tell me that you're alright](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2734901) by [orphan_account](https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account). 



> I orphaned this fic a while back but it is mine. It left off in season nine, and there have been three seasons in the interim so - finish what you started 2K17. 
> 
> Content warnings for alcoholism, arson, and codependency.

10

Dennis had never truly appreciated his personal space until his apartment went up in flames. Dee used up all the hot water and Mac stole his cookies and god-fucking-damn it both of them snored like revving motorcycles. The stress of their presence was carving lines into his face. Every grocery trip had concealer, foundation, highlight on the list. His face broke out on the weeks he went too cheap but – a necessary evil until he got out of this hellhole.

It wouldn’t be so bad if the only person around was Dee. She was irritating as shit, but he had a whole childhood of tuning out her bitching. No – the real problem was Mac. He treated reality like gum, carving into it with his teeth before spitting it in the trash. The stench of an ever-present _almost_ lingered on his body.

They didn’t fuck anymore. He caught Mac, once, watching Dennis’ hand pump his own dick as they jacked off to internet porn together. Immense claustrophobia seized him, and he went flaccid. Mac frowned.

“You ok, dude?”

Pain stabbed him in the chest. “Get out,” he said through clenched teeth. “I need to work up to the finale alone.”

“Ok, man,” Mac replied, raising his eyebrows. “No need to bring your weird rage into it.”

“Just get out,” said Dennis. He looked back at the screen, but watched Mac leave in his peripheral. The scratch on his cheek was still pink.

Dennis came to the remembrance of Mac’s flesh and blood caked under his nails.

11

_Mac awoke to the overpowering stench of smoke. Pools of sweat were gathered under his armpits. His chest was heavy; he coughed and coughed and coughed –_

_Fuck. The house was on fire. He bolted out of bed, and ran downstairs to see if he had left the oven on. Instead, he saw Dennis standing in the kitchen with a manic gleam in his eye. A match was in his hand; he was trying to light the kitchen table on fire. Half of the living room was already alight._

_“What the fuck are you doing?” Mac cried._

_“I’m lighting the house on fire,” said Dennis in a calm voice. The chair started to burn, and he smiled._

_“Why?” said Mac._

_Dennis looked right into Mac’s eyes. Mac’s body went rigid, as if he were already dead._

_“Because I hate you.”_

***

Mac jolted awake, gasping for breath. There was no smoke to choke him this time. He was in their stupid California king bed. It seemed roomier than usual; Dee must have been out getting laid. Old black man liked to raid their fridge at night so – he and Dennis were alone together in the same bed for the first time in ages.

He turned onto his side to look at his roommate. Dennis was at the far-right end of the bed, sleeping fitfully. The empty space was a gaping hole between them. He moved over to Dennis, and tentatively touched the small of his back. Dennis jolted awake.

“Who’s there?” he said, far too loud.

“Relax, dude,” said Mac. “It’s just me.”

Dennis’s body tensed instead. “What do you want?” __

“I dreamed about that time we played realtors,” he lied. “Only in this dream, we got really rich off it. Maybe we could try that scheme again someday.”

“That scheme was asinine,” said Dennis. He buried his face in his pillow. “Go back to sleep.”

Mac rested his head on the pillow, and closed his eyes.

“Would you ever light me on fire?” he mumbled. Already his brain was fading in and out of consciousness again.

Dennis didn’t answer.

12

“I can’t do this anymore,” was on the tip of Dennis’s tongue long before he decided to walk out.

He and Mac were watching some shitty sitcom on TV and drinking together. It wasn’t long after Mac had come out and _goddamn_ was he still riding that high. His drunken laughter was ten times louder than usual, and his smile crinkled his eyes whenever he looked at Dennis.

Both of them were getting older. Mac had crows’ feet; Dennis had none.

He looked over at Mac; there was a dreamy look in his eyes at what was on the television. It was a commercial for Levi’s showcasing their jeans by squeezing them onto beefcakes.

“Levi’s has some great beefcakes, but they’ve got nothing on Calvin Klein,” slurred Mac. “I would definitely top if I were with a Levi’s guy.”

Dennis put his beer down on the coffee table, and folded his hands in his lap. He looked down at them, and squeezed them together. Three years ago, this would have been Mac’s hand, but Dennis was older now and self-actualization was in vogue.

There had been a hundred, a thousand days like this, of Mac and Dennis drunk off their asses and staring into a screen. Only that wasn’t true; it had been three years since their apartment had burned down, and things were different now. Dennis had a son who was the spitting image of himself when he was young, and Mac was out for good. Three years ago, the future seemed to stretch on past the horizon, endlessly miserable but familiar. Fire had unraveled them, and something green was poking out of the ashes.

Dennis kissed Mac for the last time, and waited for the future to arrive.

**Author's Note:**

> Half of the last line is borrowed from "Woke Up New" by The Mountain Goats. Lighting the house on fire is from "Alpha Rats Nest" by The Mountain Goats. My whole life is basically lived to the entire discography of The Mountain Goats. #dealwithit


End file.
